Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Focus On Cecelia Moens; A Woman In Neuroscience, Rosa Dale-Moore

Sound Neuroscience: An Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal

Women in the field of neuroscience are hugely underrepresented and marginalized simply as a residual inequality of the gender gap in STEM fields. However, there are prominent women in this quickly expanding field. Cecilia Moens is a researcher at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. Her lab works extensively with zebra fish researching early neural development. Zebrafish are very useful for projects like this because their eggs are completely transparent to hide the embryos from predators in the water, but it also allows for researchers to easily visualize inside the embryo to observe different stages of development. …

Untitled, Kristina M. Lewin

Sound Neuroscience: An Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal

Patricia Churchland is a remarkable woman, an inspirational figure for other women, as well as scientists and scholars alike. She works and writes as a philosopher, but does not shy away from pointing out some of the problems inherent in the discipline. While readers can anticipate that her assertions will generally side with the explanations of neuroscience, she poses intriguing questions that deal with our notions of the philosophical self.

Athena’S Axon: Female Neuroscientists And The Question Of Gender Equality, Kyle J. Kolisch

Sound Neuroscience: An Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal

For decades, Shatz has been at the forefront of neuroscientific research by exploring the processes of the brains’ visual centers and its early development. Her advances in both these realms not only show the amazing capacity of science to comprehend the incomprehensible, but also the infinite potential of women neuroscientists. It is the role of scientists like Shatz to support the involvement of women in the neuroscience community, and to endure as a role model for female scientists of the future.

Women In Neuroscience: The Sex-Specific Work Of Jill M. Goldstein, Erin Anthony-Fick

Sound Neuroscience: An Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal

Jill M. Goldstein takes a new approach on differences in men and women. Where some see these differences in sex as inequality, she sees these differences in an anatomical cause-effect manner. More specifically, Goldstein is interested in the psychological disorder Schizophrenia. She analyzes this disorder in a male versus female fashion, exploring how the disorder impacts both of the sexes and what morphological differences can account for variances in overall effects or predisposition for development (3). Goldstein has also worked on issues pertinent to women’s health like anorexia nervosa and hormonal changes that occur with stressful events (4, 5). This …

“Above All, Don't Fear Difficult Moments. The Best Comes From Them” (1): The Life And Work Of Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini, Elana Hirsch

Sound Neuroscience: An Undergraduate Neuroscience Journal

In the field of neuroscience, as in many other scientific disciplines, early research was dominated by men and their discoveries. However, many women have greatly impacted neuroscience from the beginning, yet, again and again, their stories go unheard—Dr. Rita Levi-Montalcini is one such woman. Levi-Montalcini is most famous for her work as a neuroembryologist and for her discovery of nerve growth factor with Stanley Cohen. This discovery has proven to be incredibly important to the field of neuroscience; in fact, Levi-Montalcini and Cohen won the Noble Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1986 for their work. Nerve growth factors were …

Prevalence Of Learned Grapheme-Color Pairings In A Large Online Sample Of Synesthetes, Nathan Withhoft, Jonathan Winawer, David M. Eagleman

Faculty Publications

In this paper we estimate the minimum prevalence of grapheme-color synesthetes with letter-color matches learned from an external stimulus, by analyzing a large sample of English-speaking grapheme-color synesthetes. We find that at least 6% (400/6588 participants) of the total sample learned many of their matches from a widely available colored letter toy. Among those born in the decade after the toy began to be manufactured, the proportion of synesthetes with learned letter-color pairings approaches 15% for some 5-year periods. Among those born 5 years or more before it was manufactured, none have colors learned from the toy. Analysis of the …

Rats Anticipate Damaged Rungs On The Elevated Ladder: Applications For Rodent Models Of Parkinson's Disease, Daniel Lopatin, Nicole Caputo, Chelsey Damphousse, Siyaram Pandey, Jerome Cohen

Psychology Publications

The present study examined rats' ability to anticipate undetectable wider gaps between rungs produced when they stepped on and dislodged damaged rungs while they traversed a slightly inclined elevated ladder. Rats in the first of three experiments reduced running speeds when they encountered four evenly spaced damaged rungs either always placed on the first or second half of the ladder (the break-a-way (BW) phase) but quickly recovered to their baseline (BL) levels when damaged rungs where replaced with intact rungs (the recovery phase). Rats previously exposed to damaged rungs over the first half of the ladder increased their speeds above …

Brain Blast 2015 Speakers Poster, Annie Leslie

Brain Blast

Poster from UNE's Brain Blast 2015 listing the expected presenters at this event.*

Genetic Markers Of White Matter Integrity In Schizophrenia Revealed By Parallel Ica, Cota Navin Gupta, Jiayu Chen, Jingyu Liu, Eswar Damaraju, Carrie Wright, Nora I. Perrone-Bizzozero, Godfrey Pearlson, Li Lou, Andrew Michael, Jessica A. Turner, Vince D. Calhoun

Neuroscience Institute Faculty Publications

It is becoming a consensus that white matter integrity is compromised in schizophrenia (SZ), however the underlying genetics remains elusive. Evidence suggests a polygenic basis of the disorder, which involves various genetic variants with modest individual effect sizes. In this work, we used a multivariate approach, parallel independent component analysis (P-ICA), to explore the genetic underpinnings of white matter abnormalities in SZ. A pre-filtering step was first applied to locate 6527 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) discriminating patients from controls with a nominal uncorrected p-value of 0.01. These potential susceptibility loci were then investigated for associations with fractional anisotropy (FA) images …

Diversity In Neurology, Patrick Randolph

Patrick T. Randolph

BEYOND: Diversity... Presents MINDS Aflame 2015. Inspiring speeches and thought-provoking performances at Ferris State University. Patrick T. Randolph -Western Michigan University Faculty spoke on Diversity in Neurology. Event took place February 26, 2015 at Ferris State University.

The Association Of Cognitive Endophenotypes And Risky Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms Of Alzheimer's Disease Within The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (Adni) Database, Kyle Joseph Jennette

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) previously associated with Alzheimer's disease on specific domains of cognition, when controlling for Apolipoprotein E gene (APOE), in a sample of individuals with Alzheimer's disease. Methods: The data were drawn from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database, a comprehensive, longitudinal database of controls, persons with mild cognitive impairment, and persons with mild Alzheimer's disease. Each subject has a full neuropsychological assessment, neuroimaging, genetic sequencing, and physical evaluation. For the purposes of this study, individuals were selected based on the presence of the three …

Corticospinal And Reciprocal Inhibition Actions On Human Soleus Motoneuron Activity During Standing And Walking, Berthe Hanna-Boutros, Sina Sangari, Louis-Solal Giboin, Mohamed-Mounir El Mendili, Alexandra Lackmy-Vallée, Véronique Marchand-Pauvert, Maria Knikou

Publications and Research

Reciprocal Ia inhibition constitutes a key segmental neuronal pathway for coordination of antagonist muscles. In this study, we investigated the soleus H-reflex and reciprocal inhibition exerted from flexor group Ia afferents on soleus motoneurons during standing and walking in 15 healthy subjects following transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). The effects of separate TMS or deep peroneal nerve (DPN) stimulation and the effects of combined (TMS + DPN) stimuli on the soleus H-reflex were assessed during standing and at mid- and late stance phases of walking. Subthreshold TMS induced short-latency facilitation on the soleus H-reflex that was present during standing and at …

Belief About Nicotine Selectively Modulates Value And Reward Prediction Error Signals In Smokers, Xiaosi Gu, Terry Lohrenz, Ramiro Salas, Philip R. Baldwin, Alireza Soltani

Dartmouth Scholarship

Little is known about how prior beliefs impact biophysically described processes in the presence of neuroactive drugs, which presents a profound challenge to the understanding of the mechanisms and treatments of addiction. We engineered smokers' prior beliefs about the presence of nicotine in a cigarette smoked before a functional magnetic resonance imaging session where subjects carried out a sequential choice task. Using a model-based approach, we show that smokers' beliefs about nicotine specifically modulated learning signals (value and reward prediction error) defined by a computational model of mesolimbic dopamine systems. Belief of "no nicotine in cigarette" (compared with "nicotine in …

Neural Correlates Of Spontaneous Bold Fluctuations: A Simultaneous Lfp-Fmri Investigation In The Non-Human Primate, Masoomeh Hashemi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) is widely used to explore functional connectivity (FC) between brain regions across neurological and psychiatric diseases. However, the neural basis of spontaneous low frequency blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fluctuations is poorly understood.

Here, we acquired rs-fMRI data in macaque monkeys together with simultaneous recordings of local field potentials (LFPs) in prefrontal cortex area 9/46d. We first evaluated the correlation between LFPs (1-100 Hz) and BOLD signals and found unique frequency power correlates of positive and negative FC. Anti-correlation of high and low power envelopes indicated that ongoing cross-frequency interactions are a neural correlate of …

Modeling Neurovascular Coupling From Clustered Parameter Sets For Multimodal Eeg-Nirs, M. Tanveer Talukdar, H. Robert Frost, Solomon G. G. Diamond

Dartmouth Scholarship

Despite significant improvements in neuroimaging technologies and analysis methods, the fundamental relationship between local changes in cerebral hemodynamics and the underlying neural activity remains largely unknown. In this study, a data driven approach is proposed for modeling this neurovascular coupling relationship from simultaneously acquired electroencephalographic (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopic (NIRS) data. The approach uses gamma transfer functions to map EEG spectral envelopes that reflect time-varying power variations in neural rhythms to hemodynamics measured with NIRS during median nerve stimulation. The approach is evaluated first with simulated EEG-NIRS data and then by applying the method to experimental EEG-NIRS data measured from …

Love: Its Evolution And Neurobiology, Gerald Ballough Phd

Explorer Café

No abstract provided.

Insertion Of Tetracysteine Motifs Into Dopamine Transporter Extracellular Domains, Deanna M. Navaroli, Haley E. Melikian

Haley Melikian

The neuronal dopamine transporter (DAT) is a major determinant of extracellular dopamine (DA) levels and is the primary target for a variety of addictive and therapeutic psychoactive drugs. DAT is acutely regulated by protein kinase C (PKC) activation and amphetamine exposure, both of which modulate DAT surface expression by endocytic trafficking. In order to use live imaging approaches to study DAT endocytosis, methods are needed to exclusively label the DAT surface pool. The use of membrane impermeant, sulfonated biarsenic dyes holds potential as one such approach, and requires introduction of an extracellular tetracysteine motif (tetraCys; CCPGCC) to facilitate dye binding. …

The Acid-Sensitive, Anesthetic-Activated Potassium Leak Channel, Kcnk3, Is Regulated By 14-3-3beta-Dependent, Pkc-Mediated Endocytic Trafficking, Luke Gabriel, Anatoli Lvov, Demetra Orthodoxou, Ann Rittenhouse, William Kobertz, Haley Melikian

Haley Melikian

The acid-sensitive neuronal potassium leak channel, KCNK3, is vital for setting the resting membrane potential and is the primary target for volatile anesthetics. Recent reports demonstrate that KCNK3 activity is downregulated by PKC; however, the mechanisms responsible for PKC-induced KCNK3 downregulation are undefined. Here, we report that endocytic trafficking dynamically regulates KCNK3 activity. Phorbol esters and Group I mGluR activation acutely decreased both native and recombinant KCNK3 currents with concomitant KCNK3 surface losses in cerebellar granule neurons and cell lines. PKC-mediated KCNK3 internalization required the presence of both 14-3-3beta and a novel potassium channel endocytic motif, as depleting either 14-3-3beta …

The Plasma Membrane-Associated Gtpase Rin Interacts With The Dopamine Transporter And Is Required For Protein Kinase C-Regulated Dopamine Transporter Trafficking, Deanna M. Navaroli, Zachary H. Stevens, Zeljko Uzelac, Luke Gabriel, Michael J. King, Lawrence M. Lifshitz, Harald H. Sitte, Haley E. Melikian

Haley Melikian

Dopaminergic signaling and plasticity are essential to numerous CNS functions and pathologies, including movement, cognition, and addiction. The amphetamine- and cocaine-sensitive dopamine (DA) transporter (DAT) tightly controls extracellular DA concentrations and half-life. DAT function and surface expression are not static but are dynamically modulated by membrane trafficking. We recently demonstrated that the DAT C terminus encodes a PKC-sensitive internalization signal that also suppresses basal DAT endocytosis. However, the cellular machinery governing regulated DAT trafficking is not well defined. In work presented here, we identified the Ras-like GTPase, Rin (for Ras-like in neurons) (Rit2), as a protein that interacts with the …

Deep Mrna Sequencing Of The Tritonia Diomedea Brain Transcriptome Provides Access To Gene Homologues For Neuronal Excitability, Synaptic Transmission And Peptidergic Signalling, Adriano Senatore, Neranjan Edirisinghe, Paul S. Katz

Neuroscience Institute Faculty Publications

The sea slug Tritonia diomedea (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Nudibranchia), has a simple and highly accessible nervous system, making it useful for studying neuronal and synaptic mechanisms underlying behavior. Although many important contributions have been made using Tritonia, until now, a lack of genetic information has impeded exploration at themolecular level.
We performed Illumina sequencing of central nervous system mRNAs from Tritonia, generating 133.1 million 100 base pair, paired-end reads. De novo reconstruction of the RNA-Seq data yielded a total of 185,546 contigs, which partitioned into 123,154 non-redundant gene clusters (unigenes). BLAST comparison with RefSeq and Swiss-Prot protein databases, as well as …